TROY, N.Y. – The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) men's hockey team battled in their regular season finale at the Houston Field House on Saturday night, as the Engineers fell to the No. 2 Quinnipiac Bobcats by a final score of 4-1. RPI finishes the regular season 14-19-1 overall and 9-13-0 in ECAC Hockey, while Quinnipiac improves to 28-3-3 and 19-2-0 in league play.
 
The Engineers struck first, scoring at the 9:48 mark of the opening frame. Senior Ryan Mahshie came out with the puck on the top of the right wing circle, and threw a puck toward the net. Skating by the crease was freshman Sutter Muzzatti, who re-directed the puck past Yaniv Perets to give RPI the 1-0 lead. RPI held down the lead through the opening 20 minutes.
 
Quinnipiac then scored twice in the second period, led by an equalizing goal from Jayden Lee at the 5:36 mark. Lee took a wrist shot from the right wing boards by the blue line that found it's way past freshman goaltender Carson Cherepak tie the game at 1-1.
 
Just minutes later at the 7:19 mark, Jacob Quillan scored the go-ahead goal for the Bobcats on the power play. Quillan poked in a puck off a save from Cherepak, finishing on the door step to make it 2-1 Bobcats. TJ Friedmann and Christophe Fillion earned assists on the play.
 
RPI almost caught the Bobcats in a change on the power play at the 11:45 mark, as Muzzatti skated in on Perets with nobody around. A diving poke  check from Perets kept RPI at bay, as the Quinnipiac transitioned to offense and turned an odd man rush into their third goal courtesy of Sam Lipkin at the 11:56 mark. Collin Graf found Lipkin on the far post for the assist, with Perets getting the other helper.
 
With the score 3-1, Quinnipiac added an empty net goal in the final two minutes to take the 4-1 victory, with Collin Graf scoring the goal with Quillan and Lipkin each earning assists.
 
Cherepak down the Bobcats with 30 saves on the evening for RPI, while Perets finished game with 20 saves for Quinnipiac.
 
The Engineers return to action next weekend on Saturday, March 4 at the Houston Field House in an opening round matchup in the ECAC Men's Hockey Championship. RPI will be the No. 7 seed in the tournament, and will play host to No. 10 Yale, with puck drop scheduled for 7 p.m.